Daily Archives: 08/23/2016
SWU to break ground on new campus community
CENTRAL — On Aug. 30, Southern Wesleyan University will hold an official groundbreaking ceremony for a new four-story living and learning community to be constructed at the Central campus.
The 67,000-square-foot residence hall will accommodate 243 students and include space for a large lobby with a bistro and ample gathering space, fitness rooms, a theatre and a conference room.
Southern Wesleyan University has partnered with Mainstreet Student Living™ of Carmel, Ind., for this new project development. Mainstreet
® Student Living encompasses the investment, development and management sides of student housing.
Southern Wesleyan seeks to continually reinforce three pillars of uniqueness – inventive learning, faith-filled community and contagious generosity. This new facility on SWU’s campus will be conducive in exercising these institutional characteristics.
The project, which represents a $9.3 million investment, will create numerous jobs and expand Pickens County’s economic impact footprint.
Elected and appointed officials at city, county, state and national levels are being invited to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony, which will begin at 10 a.m.
New Granger Fiber Center classes starting in September
PICKENS — For Sept. and Oct., 2016, Granger Fiber Arts, located in the Pickens Community Center/Senior Center of Pickens at 129 School House Street, Pickens, SC, has added nine occasional activities to the 10 regular weekly activities schedule.
Wreath Making with Audrea Medrick will be Wednesday, Sept. 14, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Participants will provide their own supplies for either a grape vine wreath or a mesh wreath. A metal frame and one roll of mesh (burlap or woven plastic) will be needed to support the mesh wreath. Additional supplies include the following for either type of wreath: ribbon for bow, floral wire and/or pipe cleaners, decorations of your choice (sports, fall, Christmas, etc.), and wire cutters. Hot wax gun optional.
Because of the difficulty in locating supplies for the three following classes, the leaders will purchase all supplies needed and determine the cost. Adequate shipping time for these supplies, class size limits, and the dates for preregistration and submitting the cost for supplies are listed below:
Chair Caning three-day class with Dale Harward will be held Tuesday, Oct. 4, 9 a.m.- 3:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Oct. 5, 1-3:30 p.m.; and Thursday, Oct. 6, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. The cost will be $25 per “kitchen-style” chair. Preregistration and supply cost are due Monday, Sept. 12. A chair with the style caning offered is in the Granger Fiber Center. Class size is limited to 5 participants.
Basketry two-day class with Patti English will be held Thursdays Oct. 13 and 20 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.. Preregistration date, pictures for basket style selection, and cost will be available in the Granger Fiber Center by Sept. 9.
Swedish Huck Towel
three-day class with Denise Blecke will be held Thursdays Oct. 13, 20, and 27 from 9-11:30 a.m. Preregistration will be accepted through Oct. 12, but the class is limited to 5 participants. Cost of supplies is $25. A sample product is currently available in the Granger Fiber Center.
Three of the additional five Occasional Activities are:
Pillowcase Ministry: Draw strings will be added to pillowcases which are then filled with age appropriate items for infants, toddlers, and youth/adults. The filled pillowcases will be taken to DSS to be given to children and/or adults DSS has quickly removed from their homes for their safety. Participants will meet Friday, Sept. 16 from 10-11:30 a.m. Gail Vickery will meet with the group on Sept. 16. (“Preemie Items” participants will also meet with them, Sept. 16.)
Preemie Items Ministry: Infants have an acute sense of smell even at a distance of 12 feet. To assist with mother-baby-bonding and to provide the preemies the continual fragrance of their mother, simple flannel hearts which can be placed on the chests of preemie mothers to absorb the mother’s body smell and then placed near the baby will be made. Also, receiving blankets and small “propping pillows” for nurses to use when a baby needs to be re-positioned and supported will be made. (This group will meet with the “Pillowcase Ministry” on Sept. 16, 10-11:30 p.m.
Plarn Pads are made by cutting plastic grocery bags into strips, “loop joining” them and rolling them into plastic rolls of “plarn” (plastic yarn). The plarn is then crocheted to form mats homeless persons may place under their sleeping bags to keep them from coming in direct contact with the damp dirt. Barbara Orcha leads this group. They will begin meeting Wednesday, Sept. 7, 9-11:30 a.m.
The two remaining Occasional Activities will not meet as organized groups. They are opportunities for needed items to be dropped off at the Granger Center. These items will then be taken to the two receiving groups:
Hope Women’s Center welcomes crocheted lap blankets and booties which they give to couples who come to them for counseling relative to unexpected or unwanted pregnancies. These items may be brought to the Granger Center any Monday-Thursday between 9-11:30 a.m.
MARY’S House is a refuge for abused women and children. They plan a bazaar fundraiser in December. Craft donations may be brought to the Granger Center any Monday-Thursday between 9 and 11:30 a.m. to be given to Sharon Moon by Nov. 14 for delivery.
Tickets now available for annual Clusters for Kids Oyster Roast
EASLEY — Friends of Pickens County Guardian ad Litem cordially invite the community to the third annual Clusters for Kids Oyster Roast.
The event will be held Saturday, Oct, 22, from 5-9 p.m., at Arran Farm, located at 820 Lenhardt Road in Easley.
Honorary chair of the third annual Clusters for Kids Oyster Roast will be S.C. House District 3 Rep. Gary Clary.
Proceeds from the evening will assist in funding the Friends of Pickens County Guardian ad Litem programs to ensure that no child in Pickens County goes without the love, care, and necessities to have a safe, happy and healthy childhood while a part of the Guardian ad Litem Program. Programs funded include annual Heart and Sole Back to School Shopping, new clothes closet for children coming in to placement, annual Children Spring Fling and numerous other requests for the children and program.
“There are approximately 400 children with a Guardian ad Litem in Pickens County, with over 240 of these foster and kinship children being eligible for this year back to school clothing day at Belk and Rack Room Shoes,” event chair Tammy Clark said. “There is no better feeling than to have a teenager to write and say ‘I really appreciate the money to shop for clothes today and all you’ve done for me’ or receiving a note from Miracle Hill saying ‘our boys and girls are thoroughly enjoying their new clothes and shoes! It’s wonderful that they will have new things for a new academic year. We are excited to see our kids learn and thrive!’
“With our county being one of the highest in the state when it comes to neglected and abused children, making a different one child at a time, especially when you see the different through the eyes of the child.”
The evening of Saturday, Oct. 22, will include roasted oysters and southern style buffet, music, silent auction and more.
Ticket prices are $50 individually and $90 per couple, with a limited number of tickets available at the door for $75 each, and may be purchased online at friendspcgal.org.
Since 2002, the Friends of the Pickens County Guardian ad Litem has been providing holistic support to abused and neglected children and court appointed volunteers for the Pickens County Guardian ad Litem program, encompassing volunteer-centric events and community awareness. Friends of the Pickens County Guardian ad Litem programs ensures that no child in Pickens County goes without the love, care, and necessities to have a safe, happy, and healthy childhood while a part of the Guardian ad Litem program.
Visit
friendspcgal.org to learn more about the Friends of Pickens County Guardian ad Litem.
VA bungles solar projects
By harvesting the sun’s rays and converting them into electricity, solar panels can mean big savings on electrical costs. To get those savings, however, the solar projects have to actually be completed. The Office of Inspector General for the Department of Veterans Affairs investigated 11 solar projects undertaken by the VA and rated them on the end result.
These projects had been awarded between 2010 and 2013. Between 2010 and 2015, the VA spent $408 million. By March of 2016, only two of the 11 projects were up and running.
Solar projects are designed to be completed in less than 372 days. The projects the VAOIG inspected (at least the ones that were finished) had an average completion time of 1,269 days.
In Arkansas, an $8 million solar panel project had been created in the parking lot. It was never activated because it had to be dismantled when a new parking garage was built. The finish date was to be May 2013, and cost overruns are already at $1.5 million.
In California, a company was awarded a $22.5 million solar project in 2011, with an expected finish date of 2012. The state’s historic preservation office got involved and required modifications to the plan, something nobody apparently considered. The solar array started producing electricity in 2015.
In Florida, a project was delayed for almost five years because no one realized that the roof of the parking garage would need to be raised to accommodate buses.
And so on, through another half dozen projects. In one, the connection point wasn’t indicated on the plans. Another has been delayed 28 months so far, with one problem being welds versus bolts.
The VAOIG issued four suggestions for future improvement. The interim assistant secretary for management disagreed with two of them, including doing a lessons-learned analysis.
(c) 2016 King Features Synd., Inc.
Those were the days, my friends
I don’t know if children memorize poetry anymore in elementary school, but when we were children, we had to.
Mrs. Gainey, the fifth grade teacher at Wagram Elementary School, forced generations of children in our rural community to memorize poetry. She also made us memorize Psalms from the King James Bible.
I must say, although it was hard work at the time, I no longer hold it against her, because what we memorized in fifth grade, believe it or not, we all still know.
She didn’t change things up any from year to year.
What my older cousins had been taught was also taught to the younger ones as we came through.
I never realized what a favor she’d done us, but I must say that as I grow older and memorization becomes more difficult, I appreciate being able to recite some of the most beautiful language in the Bible from memory.
It doesn’t matter where I am, whether it’s dark or light, or whether the electricity is on or off.
It’s all there.
I can still hear her voice in my head. Now she had a keen unpleasant voice and talked through her nose. It was like being taught by a chain saw. It kept on and on and on until you learned the piece out of self-defense.
Also, nobody got to go out for recess until every single person in the class recited the poem. It didn’t matter if they were able to read or not.
Two students in my class, we now know, had dyslexia. But they both learned the poems, because we drilled them relentlessly at every opportunity. Mrs. Gainey allowed us time during class to do this.
Now one boy, whose family owned a peach orchard in the sand hills, missed a lot of school in the spring and again in the fall when he was needed at home to work.
He wore overalls and brogans to school every day when he attended. He was a smart boy but never a good student because he wasn’t in class.
Ardis was smart enough to get into the Air Force. Fortunately, he wasn’t killed in Vietnam and made a career out of the service, one of the few options for rural boys if they didn’t want to stay on the farm. And I’m sure he still knows the poem “Trees,” by Joyce Kilmer.
If any of Mrs. Gainey’s former students are ever on a quiz show and need to know anything about the Bible, Longfellow or Robert Louis Stevenson, another of her favorites, they’ll make out like bandits.
We had the benefit of going to a very small school with really excellent teachers. We didn’t have computers in class. We had books, a library, teachers who were valued and families who appreciated the effort made to teach children.
I don’t know of a single student who ever dropped out of that school. They would have been afraid to because they knew their teacher would personally go to their house and drag them back into class.
We may not have all become rocket scientists, but we all knew how to write in complete sentences, had a solid understanding of math and knew right from wrong.
I know times have changed, but it is my sincere wish every child in America could go to a school like that.
Courier Letters to the Editor
School board elections
Dear Editor,
I read about the filing for local school board elections in Pickens County with some concern. School board trustees are to balance the wants of the school administration with the wants of the public.
In Clemson, Betty Bagley is a former superintendent and is running unopposed. I can’t see how a former administrator who didn’t have to spend any time talking with the people of Pickens County during the campaign will be anything but biased toward doing what the district administration wants.
The same in Easley, where Betty Garrison, a former principal, is running unopposed. Garrison has praised Judy Edwards, who ignored the public when she voted to close A.R. Lewis and Holly Springs schools, and just followed the district administration.
Add in Brian Swords, who is an administrator at Tri-County Tech and voted to close the schools, too.
Our only hope is Alex Saitta in the Pickens election, who showed he is independent-minded by voting against the closings and has the experience and grit to stand as a counterbalance to Bagley, Garrison and Swords, who will rubberstamp district administration plans.
Let’s not forget State Rep. Neal Collins of Easley wants to add a seventh seat to the school board, and it will be in his area of Easley. Sen. Larry Martin stopped it before, but Sen. Martin is no longer there to stop this.
District administrators and the Easley and Clemson crowd are trying to hijack the school board, and this is not good for our county.
Dennis Reinert
Easley
Reflecting on power
Dear Editor,
In the heat and anxiety of an election year such as I have never seen in my 84 years, we need to do some reflecting on what power really is.
We read and hear about the power of the parties and also of the presidential candidates. In light of this debate or struggle, let us look at real power and might.
Look to God, the author and creator of all things, then of man created in God’s own image, which is spiritual. Man was created to care for and rule over things on earth — to subdue control and replenish. With this responsibility, he had a condition to meet. He was to be obedient to God. God place Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, commanding them to do what they were told. He stipulated that they could take fruit from all trees, etc., except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They could choose to be obedient or not. Enter Satan (the tempter and deceiver). They sinned (disobeyed God).
Thus sin entered into this world, and mankind was removed from the rulership he had and Satan took dominion over the power over the earth in the place of man. God is still supreme, but Satan is allowed for a season to tempt mankind and cause separation from God, due to we mortals having free will and a choice we can make.
Whom have you chosen? God or Satan? Each of us have to choose. It is a personal choice.
As to some of God’s power I spoke of versus man’s power, I would like you to take a short drive east of S.C. Highway 8 on Wilson Way and look at a tree on the right of the road in the pasture there. This tree about two weeks ago was alive and thriving. Approximately half-way up, it has been literally exploded. This happened as a bolt of lightning (created by God) blew the tree up.
Our home is about 100 yards from the tree. I watched it happen. The flash of light and the noise happened at the same time. Yes, it did shake our home, lit up the area and made a noise heard quite a distance awway. This was just one lightning bolt.
We need to revere God and allow him to again be the God of our nation and not the politicians as they make their ploy to be the next president. We need again to be one nation under God, instead of under man.
This is my prayer for our nation — a nation of the people, by the people and having God back in our nation as it was when our nation was founded. I see this as the only way our nation can survive.
The story of the lightning and the tree is just a reminder of just what an awesome and powerful God we serve as believers in Jesus Christ. I pray that you are, or will become, as I am. Not perfect, but forgiven through the blood of Christ, shed for all of mankind’s sin.
Max Wilson
Pickens
The Inspirations set to sing at Liberty Civic Auditorium
LIBERTY — Award-winning Southern gospel group The Inspirations will be featured at Abishai’s Homecoming Concert at the Liberty Civic Auditorium on Saturday, Aug. 27.
The concert will begin at 6 p.m., and doors will open at 5 p.m.
Known for such famous hits as “God’s Word Will Stand,” “I Have Not Forgotten” and “Faithful Friend,” The Inspirations have been spreading the gospel in song since 1964. Abishai, a harmonizing trio of siblings based out of Pickens County, have ministered to audiences with their Bible-based music for more than two decades.
The Liberty Civic Auditorium is located at 314 W. Main St. Admission is $10 at the door and $5 for children under 12 years of age. Lap children are free. An additional love offering for The LifeFM radio ministry will be received.
For more information, call (864) 607-3583.
Gap Hill Church of God to host auction
SIX MILE — Gap Hill Church of God is celebrating its 70th Anniversary by working to pay off the church mortgage during 2016.
On Friday, Aug. 26, starting at 5 p.m., the church will host a Chinese auction to help the project.
The church invites the community to join at the Family Life Center for fun, food and fellowship.
This is a family event for all ages.
Gap Hill Church of God is located at 3540 Walhalla Highway in Six Mile.
Carolina Yards Upstate Gardening School set
CLEMSON — Because the more you know, the more you grow, local and regional experts will share their passion for gardening in a fun and educational day-long gardening school.
The Carolina Yards program is based on 12 key principles that help home gardeners create a low maintenance and beautiful landscape that works with nature and protects natural resources.
The workshop will focus on fertilizing and managing pests responsibly. Set for 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sept. 6 at the S.C. Botanical Garden, the cost for the event is $60 and includes lunch, a Carolina Yards manual and soil test.
For more information and to register, visit clemson.edu/scbg/calendar.html or call (864) 359-3385.
Annual Juried Art Show cancelled at the Pickens County Museum
PICKENS — The Juried Art Show has always been a keystone event at the Pickens County Museum of Art and History. Unfortunately, this year it was found that the historic building has suffered serious water damage.
Pickens County Council has continued its commitment and support for the Pickens County Museum with the allocation of $120,000 from accomodations tax funds to repair the damage.
Due to the pending repairs and upgrades to the museum, the Juried Art Show that was to be held in October is cancelled. The museum is unsure as to the areas that will be affected.
The probability of damaging or endangering an artist’s work would be greatly increased by the construction, officials said.
